A lot of the magic behind the God of War franchise is in how minimal work, like simple three-button combos, turns into brutally fantastic results on-screen. Fire, ice, thunder, and soul magics are acquired at different points in the story, and they can be upgraded alongside the standard blades with red orbs. Fully upgraded, these elemental magic additions allow for some pretty explosive attacks — ones that will prove highly useful in the final chapters of the game. Overall, combat feels and looks a bit tighter than before.

It’s a story that tries so very hard to have you relate to the mellowed-out Kratos. And sure, there are a few touching moments when Kratos reminisces about his deceased wife and child, but for the most part Ascension’s emotional impact is limited to cut scenes of him looking moody, or getting a bit angry with one of the three evil furies he’s chasing.

“This is based in a kind of rock-paper-scissors arrangement: light attacks can interrupt heavy attacks, but can be parried; heavy attacks break blocks, but can be dodged; dodges avoid heavy attacks, but make you vulnerable to grapples from a distance, and so on. This is further complicated by the option to choose a spear, sword or hammer as your champion’s primary weapon, which allows for flexibility in play style while keeping things more or less balanced.”

Joystiq felt the series was getting stale, and was also concerned with the misogyny of some parts of the game. On the other hand, while they felt multiplayer might be unbalanced, they did like the mode, especially the arenas:

Multiplayer options include variants of free-for-all, team deathmatch, team objective, and capture the flag. The maps are well designed, with environmental flairs that reference other characters and locales from the series. Adding to the environment’s quality are elements that you can use to your advantage, like pre-set traps or giant, static creatures that can be enthralled and used to attack your enemies. Nearly every map has its own special feature that can be harnessed to give your team the upper hand, save for a few maps that are simple battle pits.

Ascension’s biggest success is a colour-coding system that effectively lets you know when you have an opening and when to run. Unblockable attacks are signalled by a player glowing red, white denotes invincibility, and blue signals a player in recovery. It’s a simple, smart system further improved by rock-paper-scissors combat, cooldown-controlled special moves and a logical, consistent approach to hitstun. Consider our expectations defied: this is the star of the show. While this series’ singleplayer template is showing its age, there’s plenty in Ascension’s multiplayer that deserves to survive the transition to PS4.

In short, if you’re a fan of the series, you’re going to enjoy this game, and the multiplayer looks like a pleasant surprise.

One negative already: THEY DIDN’T MAKE A GUIDE. Why Gamma Squad…. why??!?!?!?! My system is updating now, but apparently there is a digital manual that it suggested I download, but no physical guide is a big negative in my beginner/intermediate world….
I’ll come back tonight with some actual game play.

It definitely has the usual fantastic level design, the usual excellent combat and gameplay, the usual phenominal graphics. But I still feel like I’m missing something here. Honestly these guys are one of the best studios that Sony has, they just need a new IP. Kratos just needs to disappear for a decade or so. It’s a damn good game, I guess Kratos’ schtick is just getting old.

I agree, Surly. Amazing, graphic, bloody, action packed…. but it’s missing something. It doesn’t feel as special as 3 did. Also, the graphics are really great, but every now and then the characters look weird. Also, didn’t I used to be able to control the camera angle a little bit? Also also, the a lot of “you’re fighting but the camera is pulled WAY back so you can check out how hard we worked on the other details of this scene…”

That is an aspect that I was hoping they’d get away from. The reason I didn’t like 3 that much was the battles where they got too wrapped up in how pretty they made it, it was pulled so far back it became nearly impossible to battle effectively. It really turned me off the game and it’s the only GOW game I haven’t played more than once.

So you don’t need a guide…. it really holds your hand for you to do what is needed. My husband came home and was really blown away by the graphics and the gore. Also the jumping/climbing is easier which lowers some frustration. I’m liking it, enjoying it but it’s not…. I’m not over the moon. I am interested in where the story goes though and what the multiplayer will look like.

Thanks for weighing in. It’s good to hear the platforming is improved (although each game is leaps and bounds better in that regard: Anybody remember those rafters in the Hell level from the first one?)